This strange and savage American winter has produced many oddities, and the appearance of Snowy Owls from the Arctic Circle has been the only delight in a season of ice and gloom. And then a Washington DC bus struck a beloved white owl a block away from the White House Rose Garden.

In normal times, the arctic bird of prey known as the Snowy Owl stays up north, feasting upon the…
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The owl had been roosting on a building near McPherson Square, a rectangle of urban park space where the city's many rodents can be easily spotted by raptors. Birds of prey, unfortunately, do not pay enough attention to the street traffic when swooping down to catch a young rat. And that is how a DC bus struck the beloved owl this morning.

According to the Washington Post, the snowy owl had blood in its mouth and was treated for its head injury: medicine for the pain and fluids injected beneath the owl's skin to prevent dehydration during its recovery.